Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. wants to buy surveillance cameras and install them is different areas downtown.

VICKSBURG – Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. wants to buy surveillance cameras and install them is different areas downtown.

“I think it’s time for us to seriously look at surveillance and security systems for the city, particularly the downtown area,” Flaggs told The Vicksburg Post before budget talks Monday.

“We need a security system and we need to tie it to 911, where 911 is watching all the time what’s going on downtown,” he said. “Bigger cities are doing it, and we ought to be doing it, too.”

The police department’s capital fund budget includes $60,000 for a mobile tower camera that can extend a video camera about 30 feet in the air for surveillance. The camera was discussed in March during meetings on the city’s litter problem as method for catching illegal dumpers.

Police Chief Walter Armstrong said he prefers freestanding cameras that would work off existing electrical lines. He also recommended monitors at the police department as well as 911 “so two sets of eyes are watching.”

Flaggs said if the city’s two aldermen agree, extra money could be given the city’s information technology department to develop the system.